Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations via transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. This communication link may be established via a single-in-single-out, multiple-in-signal-out or a multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) system.
Feedback mechanisms can also be employed by the wireless communication system, such as hybrid automatic repeat/request (HARQ) or similar mechanisms, such that a first node can report acknowledgement (ACK) or negative-acknowledgement (NACK) for communications from a second node. In this regard, the second node can retransmit communications for which NACK is reported by the first node. In addition, in LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, wireless terminals can be configured with two or more component carriers from one or more base stations to increase throughput and/or diversity. Transmitting feedback for the multiple component carriers can require additional resources at the wireless terminal, which consumes power and can inhibit data rate.